Determining if defaultshape contains default text

[Alex Bendig]

Hi all,

How can I determine if a shape shp that is a defaultShape contains actual
text or just the default text ("Click to add title", etc.)? For both all
conditions below appear to be true.

if (shp.HasTextFrame == Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoTriState.msoTrue)
{
if (shp.TextFrame.HasText == Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoTriState.msoTrue)
{
if (shp.Type == Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoShapeType.msoPlaceholder)
{

}
}
}

Maybe the handling of default text is something that PowerPoint does
internally without exposing the information at all, though I certainly hope,
someone is able to prove the opposite ;-)

Thanks and regards,
Alex

 

[Shyam Pillai]

Alex,
HasText property will return a False for an empty placeholder with the
default text "Click here to ...". It will return a True if user has entered
some text within. Are you seeing otherwise?

Regards
Shyam

 

[Steve Rindsberg, PPTMVP]

If Shp.HasTextFrame Then
If Shp.TextFrame.HasText Then
MsgBox Shp.TextFrame.TextRange.Text
End If
End If

Here (PPT2000) the msgbox never executes if it's a Click Here text box that
nobody's Clicked Here on, so to speak.

I think there was a bug in an earlier version of PPT that caused examining
the text box in VB to plug in a null or the like, making PPT think that
there WAS text there. Any chance you're seeing something like that?

--

Steve Rindsberg PPT MVP
PPTLive ( http://www.pptlive.com ) Featured Speaker
PPTools: http://www.pptools.com
PPT FAQ: http://www.pptfaq.com

 

[Alex Bendig]

Shyam,

Yes, unfortunately I do. I double-checked to make sure I don't accidently
access
TextFrame.TextRange.Text directly or store text before trying to retrieve
it, but I am now quite certain that this is the first spot where I actually
access the text of any given shape.

public string getText(PowerPoint.Shape shp)
{
if (shp.HasTextFrame == Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoTriState.msoTrue)
{
if (shp.TextFrame.HasText ==
Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoTriState.msoTrue)
{
return shp.TextFrame.TextRange.Text; // [*]
}
else
{
return null;
}
}
else
{
return null;
}
}

The line marked with [*] always appears to get executed for placeholder
shapes that contain text - no matter if this is the default text ("Click to
add ..." etc.) or actual user-entered text.

Any input would be appreciated.

Regards,
Alex